Objective Proficiency p 42. Inequality. Extra Listening and Reading

Inequality and the 1% by  Danny Dorling
Can we afford the rich? Why the growth of the wealthy is making the UK a more dangerous place to live.

Since the great recession hit in 2008, the 1% has only grown richer while the rest find life increasingly tough. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has turned into a chasm /ˈkæzəm/. While the rich have found new ways of protecting their wealth, everyone else has sugared the penalties of austerity.

But inequality is more than just economics. Being born outside the 1% has a dramatic impact on a person's potential: reducing life expectancy, limiting educational and work prospects, and even affecting mental health.

What is to be done? In Inequality and the 1% leading social thinker Danny Dorling lays bare the extent and true cost of the division in our society and asks what have the superrich ever done for us. He shows that inequality is the greatest threat we face and why we much urgently redress the balance. 

Inequality is more than just economics. It is the culture that divides and makes social mobility impossible. Leading geographer Danny Dorling goes in pursuit of the latest research into how the lives and ideas of the 1 percent impact the remaining 99 percent; and the findings are shocking. Inequality in the UK is increasing; more and more people are driven toward the poverty line. The mere accident of being born outside the 1 percent will have a dramatic impact on the rest of your life: it will reduce your life expectancy, as well as educational and work prospects, and affect your mental health.

chasm: 1. a deep crack or opening in the ground. E.g. They leaned over the rails and peered down into the dizzying chasm below. 2. chasm (between A and B) (formal) a very big difference between two people or groups, for example because they have different attitudes. E.g. There is still a vast economic chasm between developed and developing countries.

sugar/sweeten the pill to do something that makes an unpleasant situation seem less unpleasant. E.g. Plans to improve public services are a way of sugaring the pill of increased taxation.

http://www.dannydorling.org/books/onepercent/

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The Price of Inequality